According to the current state of the art and current practice, a person who is sick or injured in an accident for example, generally called a "patient" herein, is typically transported the location at which he became ill or injured to a hospital or other medical facility by emergency medical technicians (EMTs) or other medical or rescue personnel, in a transport vehicle such as an ambulance or medical evacuation aircraft. The patient is carried and supported on a stretcher from the location of illness or injury into the ambulance, during transport in the ambulance, and then from the ambulance into the hospital.
During such transportation of the patient, and especially a seriously ill or seriously injured patient, various first aid and emergency medical response procedures are carried out and administered to the patient. For this purpose, it is often necessary for the EMTs or other personnel to carry along various medical devices such as an infusion pump, an oxygen supply device, a defibrillator, an electrocardiograph (EKG), intravenous (IV) equipment and the like, as well as medical supplies. Conventionally, these medical accessories must be carried by an additional attendant, or in many cases, these devices are simply laid on the stretcher next to the patient or directly onto the body of the patient. Moreover, due to the lack of portability and the limitations of the medical personnel in carrying all of the possibly needed medical accessories, certain medical devices or supplies will not even be carried along, and thus will not be utilized for treating the patient during transport from the location of injury or accident to the medical facility.
The above mentioned situations, of course, detract from the quality of the first aid and emergency medical response procedures being administered to the patient. Moreover, it is difficult or impossible to continuously administer the necessary treatments or to carry out the necessary assessments without interruption from the time the patient is first picked up on the stretcher until the patient is transferred to a hospital bed or the like.